Perry suggests Republicans should nominate ‘conservatives’ for president

Sounding very much like a presidential candidate, Gov. Rick Perry told the Conservative Political Action Conference meeting in Washington Thursday that the Obama Administration was engaging in “bribery” by offering states substantial sums to expand Medicaid to low-income adults.

At the same time, he called for the administration to give Texas “flexibility” to design a Medicaid program that requires personal responsibility through co-pays and deductibles.

He also mocked the idea that November election indicated that the national electorate had rejected conservative values: “That might be true if Republicans had actually nominated conservatives in 2008 and 2012,” he said. The remark seemed to suggest he believes the party made a mistake in rejecting his short-lived presidential candidacy in favor of nominee Mitt Romney’s.

His speech came just hours after he delivered to members of the Texas congressional delegation a letter urging them to “secure flexible funding so we may tailor our program to specifically meet the needs of our citizens in a fiscally responsible manner.”